The Indian economy is likely to grow at nearly 8 percent in the current fiscal, driven by robust private consumption, which has benefited from lower energy prices and higher real incomes, the PHD Chamber of Commerce said.

“Going ahead, growth in India is projected to notch up to 8 percent in 2016-17. Growth will continue to be driven by private consumption, which has benefited from lower energy prices and higher real incomes,” it said in a statement here.

“Further, with the revival of sentiment and pick-up in industrial activity, a recovery of private investment is expected to strengthen growth in the coming times,” it added.

The chamber estimated that India’s gross domestic product (GDP) share as a global percentage had doubled from 1.43 percent in 2000 to 2.86 percent in 2015.

“India’s GDP stood at $477 billion in 2000 and increased to $2,091 billion in the year 2015, showing more than four-fold increase over a period of 15 years,” said PHD Chamber president Mahesh Gupta.

“The BRICS economies (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) also contributed a significant share in the world GDP which increased from 8.27 percent in 2000 to 22.53 percent in 2015,” he added.

Announcing the Reserve Bank of India’s first monetary policy statement of the fiscal earlier this month when he cut the key interest rate to 6.5 percent, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan retained its GDP growth projection for 2016-17 at 7.6 percent.

“Given weak private investment in the face of low capacity utilisation, a reduction in the policy rate by 25 bps (basis points) will help strengthen activity and aid the government’s initiatives,” he had said.